George W. Bush made it cool to be a bundler, giving big-time donors nicknames like “Pioneers” and “Rangers” that carried a certain gravitas in political circles.

Texas oilmen, CEOs, lobbyists and others who could get their friends to kick in checks that added up to $100,000 or more were part of an elite club that came with special access, perks and bragging rights in Washington.

But those days are gone.

Mitt Romney doesn’t want to look like he’s palling around with lobbyists and wealthy donors, as he tries to reach the Average Joe. Plus, super PACs have made a stack of checks in the six-figure range seem almost quaint.

Presidential hopefuls still depend on a set of donors who round up money en masse from wealthy friends, but a cultural shift has returned bundling to a behind-the-scenes campaign practice — rather than a status symbol.

“I think it will be awhile before anybody starts passing out buttons and epaulettes like the Bush people,” said Democratic uber fundraiser Tony Podesta of the Podesta Group.

Romney has only disclosed the few registered lobbyists he is legally required to report — not the hundred or more he will count on to raise as much as half of his campaign war chest if he becomes the Republican nominee. Romney does have a tiered system to thank bundlers, it is just not publicized to the same extent as Bush’s.

Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have reported no bundlers. President Barack Obama has disclosed all of his bundlers, but isn’t taking money from lobbyists or lobbyist bundlers.

“You see Romney and Obama railing against lobbyists,” Podesta said. “There are a lot of lobbyists who are raising money for Romney, but all of us sort of keep on doing our political activities as is our want, and some people enjoy it and do it and some people don’t like it and don’t do it very much.”

Podesta is a top Democratic bundler. At a recent event for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, he raised $600,000. He said he expects to raise $400,000 at an upcoming event for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Podesta, who bundled for President Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996 and for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004, is not an Obama bundler because the president does not allow registered lobbyists to contribute or bundle campaign contributions.

Podesta’s public embrace of bundling is the exception, not the rule. For years politicians banked on an informal network of wealthy boosters to raise wads of cash, but that all changed when the Bush campaign invented a system that tried to institutionalize bundling.

Jack Oliver, a Bush campaign finance adviser, helped create the successful bundling program that raised $101 million in the 2000 election. It was expanded in Bush’s reelection effort to include a top tier of $200,000-plus bundlers deemed “Rangers.”

“The idea was to figure out a way to get people involved more than just writing a check,” Oliver told POLITICO. “We really wanted them to be investors in the president for the long-term.”

Oliver attributed the success of the program because it showed donors “they could be a force for the president. The concept was to take retail [fundraising] to wholesale. That’s why it’s so powerful.”

Bush found his support far and wide. James Langdon of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld was an unlikely target. A Democrat with roots in Texas, Langdon had known Bush for years and was a major fundraiser for him.

“It wasn’t just a K Street crowd. It was people from all over the country,” Langdon said, noting that each mega fundraiser had a connection with Bush. “It was just a fun thing to be doing, supporting a friend. It was infectious.”

It also gave high-dollar fundraisers gravitas in political circles where everyone knew what it meant to be a Pioneer or a Ranger.

“There was a pop to standing up to be a Ranger for George Bush,” one long-time GOP fundraiser said.

Bush listed individual bundlers on his website in the 2000 and 2004 campaign. Bush supporters would list it on their bio pages and mention it on the cocktail circuit. Some of those bundlers also were rewarded with plumb ambassador slots.

The cache of bundling within political circles hasn’t diminished, but since Bush both Democratic and Republican candidates have tried to limit the information released about big donors.

“Campaigns have a natural tendency to try and keep certain information as close as possible because they send signals that they may or may not like—like all of our bundlers are CEOs or all of our bundlers are trial lawyers,” said Dirk Van Dongen of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors.

Several candidates, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and then-Sen. Hilary Clinton (D-N.Y.), refused early on in the 2008 presidential campaign to disclose their bundlers until under pressure from good government groups and editorial boards both changed course.

This cycle Obama is the only presidential candidate to voluntarily disclose his top fundraisers this cycle, including more than 60 people who have pulled in at least $500,000 each for the president.

And while good government groups want disclosure, they concede it’s hard to force candidates to cough up more information than legally required.

“There is nothing mandating it,” Public Citizen’s Craig Holman said. The ethics watchdog operated a website “White House for Sale” in previous election cycles that detailed candidate disclosure. But while previous campaigns folded under pressure, Holman said that “this cycle is very different… Romney in particular has said no and they have no intention of doing so.”

And while much of the campaign finance for the presidential election has focused on super PACs and their increasing role in funding campaigns, Holman predicted that if Romney is the GOP nominee it will surface as issue.

“In this no holds bar financing of the 2012 election, this will be an issue that comes up,” Holman said, noting that it will play in President Barack Obama’s favor since he voluntarily has disclosed all of his donors.

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an email that “we disclose all of the information about our donors as required by law and anyone who is interested can review it publicly.” Romney recently reported that lobbyist-bundlers raised nearly $1.2 million for his campaign.

Saul did not respond to further inquiry about whether the campaign would disclose the bundlers. Romney — as nearly all candidates since Bush employed the system — has a three tiered bundler program named after his time overseeing the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Those raising $50,000 get a bronze, $100,000 donors are group in the silver category and more than $250,000 bundlers are slotted as gold.

David Beightol of Dutko Grayling said Romney’s fundraising operation is a well-oiled machine. Beightol, who is a registered lobbyist, is listed in federal election documents as a bundler. He raised $86,175 in 2011 for Romney. Just because they aren’t getting public recognition, doesn’t mean that is stopping GOPers from wanting to bundle because the cache is still there with the campaign, according to several Romney supporters.

“It’s just better organized than in the past. The people you work with on the Romney team are really organized and helpful,” Beightol said.